Curselock

Chapter 11: Lost

“I’m telling you, we are lost,” Glenny said to the group.

It was well into night at this point but the group was still in the tall, grassy, soulless savannah wilds. Since their battle with the pride of lions, they had not seen a single monster besides the benign or mundane animal. Even with Glenny’s heightened senses, there simply wasn’t anything to do but aimlessly wander.

“If someone hadn’t let go of the map…” Leland teased, smirking.

“You know how I get when there’s something in my eye!” Jude exclaimed.

“Yeah, you get teary.”

“Do not!”

“Do so!”

“Maybe I do…”

Leland took his victory with a laugh. “If worse comes to worst, then we camp out here for the night. We never got an inn, so we still have our camping supplies.”

Jude saw an opening. “You get cranky,” he said with a smirk.

“No I don’t.”

“No he doesn’t.”

His smirk fell.

The others laughed.

“Still,” Leland continued. “We should probably try to find the town. I don’t want to camp out with monster parts stinking up the area.”

So they got back to walking, their packs full of meaty bloody organs and pelts. Glenny also kept the lions’ claws and teeth, stating that he would look into getting a pair of bone daggers crafted later.

During the down time, Leland checked over his grimoire’s newest entry.

You have assisted in killing multiple Mana Lions. An appropriate reward has been added to your Legacy.

Fracture has increased to rank 5.

Crow Massacre increased to rank 3.

Just as he expected, Fracture’s percent chance to hit went up by five and Crow Massacre increased its crow count by one. Honestly, Leland was a bit disappointed that Curse of Collapse didn’t rank up. Despite him only using it once, he thought the situation would have given him more rewards than simply nothing.

He shrugged, checking the next page. It was still stuck shut. Putting the grimoire back into his hand, Leland saw the crow tattoo move. It changed its perpetual flight to something more guarded. At least, as guarded as a bird could get.

I wonder what—

His thoughts were cut off when Glenny gasped.

“Guys, weapons out,” the rogue said, slipping invisible. “I smell blood.”

As a trail of patted down grass left Leland and Jude, they readied themselves. Together they walked back to back further through the savannah. A whistle cut the tense air, both boys jumped at the sound, but then saw an opaque Glenny waving them over.

As they neared, they could smell it too. A mangled hunk of meat sat alone in the brush, knife marks and thick puncture wounds all over the muscly mass. Blood was draped around the area, cold and still wet. Leland couched down, picking at the flesh with a pocket knife.

“Looks fresh,” Glenny said.

“What is it?” Jude retorted, his nose scrunched.

“Human.”

Both Glenny and Jude turned to look at the speaker. Leland simply shrugged and pushed some of the bits around for the others to see. “That’s a hand. A foot here… I think this is the face?”

Leland hooked the mess of skin on his knife, pulling it up for the others to inspect.

Glenny gasped again. “It’s that young Master’s bodyguard! House Onryo!”

The others paled, Leland dropping the severed face like a boiling pot of falling oil. He stepped back, falling over his feet and into the grass. Something wet then splattered across his face and chest. He turned with horror, a detached arm still white knuckled around a sword sat beside him.

He jumped up. “Ew! Ew! It touched me! I’m covered in it!” Leland started pulling off his parents’ birthday gift.

“Gnarly,” Jude whispered.

“What could have done this?” Glenny asked. “The lions were nowhere near this level of power.”

“Must be foul play then,” Jude said, forcing himself not to smirk at his friend pouring water on himself.

“What do we do? We can’t just leave him here.”

“Sure we can.” Glenny raised an eyebrow, causing Jude to rethink his statement. “Alright, maybe we can’t.”

“Guys,” Leland said, now stripped to his undershirt. “You two are missing something important. Where is the young Master Onryo?”

Jude pursed his lips but Glenny’s reaction was more… extreme. The rogue shut down, falling into a frozen state. Only his eyes moved, twitching, jagged movements. He eyed the dark horizon, the mangled body guard, then the trail of blood leading through the straw. Slowly, like a baby first learning to crawl, he opened his mouth.

“Do either of you recognize where we are? Truly, look around.”

Leland shook his head but Jude raised a finger to his chin. “Now that you mention it, this place does look familiar.”

“We are at the dungeon,” Glenny said simply. “Behind it, actually.”

Leland recoiled, looking around. The longer he squinted at the dark landscape around them, the more the picture began to fill in. A plethora of bushes and an oddly filled tree line. His eyes widened in realization when he saw the building hidden within the brush.

Glenny continued. “The trail of blood leads around to the entrance. And I suspect we are going to find at least one more body.”

“The Guild attendant watching the entrance,” Leland supplied.

Jude’s shoulders slumped. “What do we do?”

“At the very least we should check and make sure the attendant is truly dead. If they were bleeding out and we could have helped them, I’ll never be able to sleep again,” said Leland.

Glenny nodded to the notion, activating his invisibility. He led the way, pushing through the tall grass like the very lions they hunted earlier. Coming into view of the entrance proper, a flickering mana light was all there was to illuminate the building’s interior.

Glenny let out a long breath, signaling the others it was safe.

Leland cursed, “My Lord, that's a lot of blood.”

The tattoo on his hand tilted its head, but no one noticed.

“Yeah,” Jude said robotically. “Too much blood. Trust me, I’ve killed a lot of things. There has never been this much blood.”

Red stained the building’s walls and ceiling, droplets fell to the hardwood floor, the stench of iron perforated the windows they looked through. As they pushed in, they found the mangled body of the attendant behind a countertop. It was an older gentleman, the fading tattoo on his hand all but confirming the man was not a combatant.

“The Legacy of the Quill Lord,” Leland said, recognizing the feather pen ink. “He was a receptionist, he didn’t deserve to be killed like this.”

“He didn’t deserve to be killed at all,” Glenny said before taking a deep breath. “The Master Onryo is still missing. There is no body.”

“Hey guys… you should come see this.”

At some point Jude had stepped further into the building, a set of red boot prints leaving a path. The others followed his voice into the back room. They found Jude standing before a broken open vault door, melting red ice dripped from the mangled hinges.

“Someone went in,” Jude said, pointing into the vault. “The dungeon is activated.”

The green shimmering entrance all but confirmed his words. Dungeon portals are typically blue, signifying the dungeon is ready for delving. After entering, teammates had an hour to exit before the entrance “closed,” turning a deep red. Only one group was allowed in at a time, which only meant one thing.

“We are the only ones who can help Onryo.”

Both Jude and Leland turned to Glenny. The young man gripped his twin daggers with all his might. His breathing was erratic and harsh, a stark contrast to his statue-like face staring at the shimmering portal entrance.

“We don’t have much time. The entrance will close soon. We need to decide what we are going to do.” Glenny hesitated before adding, “I recognize who the killer is.”

“Who?” Jude asked.

“An Icewillow.”

Leland shook his head. “No, that doesn’t make any sense. They were all branded Witches and executed for their crimes. This can’t be a member.”

Glenny shook his head, tears forming but never falling. “After the funeral for – for mom, I overheard an Inquisitor telling my dad the youngest son had escaped.”

“Their youngest son?! That means the last surviving Icewillow is the man who—”

“Killed my mom, yeah,” Glenny finished. “And another is about to fall to his hand, if Onryo hasn’t been killed already, that is.”

Leland and Jude glanced at each other, a silent agreement forming. Leland took the initiative. “What do you want to do? We will follow your choice.”

Glenny gave them a shy smile. His fingers loosened and curled around the hilt of his daggers, the gears in his mind turned.

“We go in.”

“Damn right we do!” Jude bellowed, pulling his axe to his shoulder. “I’ll take point.”

And just like that, it was time for their rookie team to delve their first dungeon.